Contact: Emily Adlfinger, Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7970

PELLA, Iowa (Nov. 7, 2020) – The youngest members of the Loras College men's cross country team made their presence known at the 2020 American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Championship at Central College on Saturday after All-Conference performances by freshmen Evan Jamrozy and Will Yasdick helped the Duhawks to a second-place team finish.

The Duhawks would not only have to battle the competition across the 8,000-meter course but also unseasonably warm temperatures and winds. A mid-70 degree afternoon and challenging course could have significantly impacted the team's performance and was certainly in the back of head coach Bob Schultz's mind.

"The heat was a definite factor today," said Schultz. "If this had been the first race of the season in September, a 70 degree day would have been great, but we have had cold and snow already this season so to adjust to this was a definite challenge. The heat was another reason why we wanted to run our race plan today and run smart."

From the start, Wartburg College held strong with a pack of runners leading the field, but Jamrozy meticulously worked his way up to run with the top-ten at the two mile mark before moving up into the top-five and eventually taking the lead against returning All-American and defending conference champion Joe Freiburger just before the 6,000-meter point. Freiburger pulled away for the lead and the individual title near the four-mile mark, but Jamrozy finished strong to post a third-place finish with a time of 25:47.82.

 Yasdick also showcased an impressive race after he moved up from nearly 60th at the start of the race to finish 15th with a time of 26:43.47. Ryan Harvey, one of the front runners alongside Jamrozy for much of the race, finished 17th (26:48.64). The freshman neared the finish line in tenth and collapsed just before the line, but mustered his last bit of strength to pull himself across the finish. Wyatt Kelly was the next Duhawk to finish in 19th with a time of 26:49.12 followed by Luke Guttormson in 20th (26:49.89), Will Whalen (26:55.36) in 22nd and Brian Maty in 35th (27:32.52).

"As a team, we stuck pretty close to how we wanted to execute our game plan and we had a really good day," said Schultz. "Our freshman ran extremely well. Evan really showed up for us today—it was the biggest stage we've had all season and he stepped it up. He beat some very good runners who had beat him earlier in the season. Will also ran a smart race and Harvey was up there with them throughout the race. I was really proud of them because they showed up today and made an impact."

Wartburg defended the team title with a score of 27 and Loras scored 75 points to place second overall and improve on a third-place finish in 2019. Simpson College finished third with 85 points.

Cross country was one of three sports the conference sponsored championships for this fall and Saturday's championship marked the end of the season as there are no NCAA Division III postseason championships this fall due to COVID-19.